What is Most Expensive Stock? Top Stocks in the World

July 1, 20190

Most Expensive Stock

Currently, the priciest stock trading in global markets is Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (NYSE:BRK), helmed by one of Wall Street’s most-respected stock pickers, Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway’s Class-A shares are selling for $310,850 per share, as of May 2019. (Berkshire Hathaway’s Class-B shares sell for much less, about $205 per share.)

The difference between BRK-A shares and BRK-B shares is fairly straightforward and directly impacts the share price. Class A shares are geared toward deep-pocketed investors who, like Buffett, value long-term portfolio gains, rather than short-term price swings, and are willing to pay a higher share price to get it. Class B shares provide more flexibility, along with more robust tax benefits.

On a year-to-date basis, BRK-A has risen from approximately $300,000 per share in mid-January 2019 to $310,850 in May 2019. Its consensus one-year price target of $361,067 is a bit higher than its current price of $310,850 per share. Buffett has structured Berkshire Hathaway as a holding company for multiple companies it owns, including BNSF, Precision Castparts, Lubrizol, MidAmerican Energy, and GEICO.

Most Expensive Stock

Berkshire Hathaway’s share price growth is impressive. For example, if an investor had put $10,000 in BRK—about 808 shares based on the $12 stock price at the time—in 1964, that investor would have gained a whopping $208 million through mid-2017. Or, in other terms, the stock price would have risen 1,972,595 percent from 1964 to the end of 2016. That’s a tough act to follow, although other high-priced stocks also have impressive stories.

For example, Berkshire Hathaway is followed on the “most expensive stock list” by Lindt & Spruengli AG (LISN.SW), a Swiss multinational chocolatier and confectionery company. As of May 2019, the company is trading at $6,530 per share, with a market cap of $17.3 billion. Tracking behind Lindt & Spruengli is Seaboard Corporation (SEB), a multinational Fortune 500 company that deals in the agribusiness sector and transportation. Headquartered in Kansas, SEB is trading at $4,218, with a market cap of $4.92 billion.

What Is The Most Expensive Stock

The most expensive publicly traded stock of all time is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), which is trading at $305,085 per share, as of February, 2019). Berkshire hit an all-time high on Oct. 9, 2018, at $335,900.

Thanks to spectacular shareholder gains and the idiosyncrasies of its founder, this share value is unlikely to be matched by anything other than continued gains in Berkshire’s share price.

The next company behind Berkshire, in terms of stock price, is Seaboard Corporation (SEB), which was trading at $3,775 per share as of Feb. 14, 2019. Then there’s NVR (NVR) at $2,665, Booking Holdings (BKNG) at $1,911 and Amazon.com (AMZN) at $1,626.

The reason why certain stocks are priced so high is usually due to the company having never completed a stock split.

Most Expensive Stock graph

Top 10 Most Expensive Stocks in the World

What is the most expensive stock in the world? It belongs to Warren Buffet or his Berkshire Hathaway to be precise. As of this writing, BRK.A is trading at $303,100 apiece on NYSE. The holding company has a wide range of portfolio, from wholly owned companies like Dairy Queen and Netjets to minority holdings in blue chips such as Apple, Coca Cola and Wells Fargo. For the rest, here’s our complete and updated list of the most expensive stocks in the world in 2018:

What is the highest stock price right now?

Berkshire Hathaway – $303,100.00

Lindt & Sprüngli AG – $72,037.79

Next Plc – $6,553.89

Seaboard Corporation – $4,019.26

NVR Inc. – $2,900.02

Booking Holdings Inc. – $2,033.79

Amazon Inc. – $1,500.25

Markel Corporation – $1,116.30

Madras Rubber Factory Limited – $1,109.73

Alphabet Inc. – $1,084.14

If you are a safe investor, you are better off putting your income in secure options like term deposits and bonds. But if you have an appetite for risk, consider investing in stocks. Goodfinancialcents.com reveals that at the average annual stock market return is 7%. You can maximize your returns from the stock market by thinking long-term, getting advice from a knowledgeable finance professional, and by avoiding funds that charge high fees.

To give you further guidance, here are useful investing facts and stats gleaned from Fool.com: Invest in an affordable broad-market index fund as it can outperform most of the managed stock mutual funds. In addition, dividends can boost your investing. However, avoid excessive trading and day trading as it can impact your returns. Inflation cuts purchasing power by half. This means over 20 years, the purchasing power of $100,000 becomes just $54,000. Finally, stocks (S&P 500) have risen 1,100-fold over the past 70 years.

Most Expensive Stock Share

By market capitalization, as of Feb. 2019, Microsoft (MSFT) is the biggest company at $821 billion, followed by Apple (AAPL) at $804.14 billion, Amazon.com (AMZN) at $798.57 billion, Google (GOOGL) at $782.3 billion and Berkshire Hathaway at $500.5 billion.

Back in 2000, Chinese energy giant PetroChina (PTR) reached an estimated market value of around $1 trillion during its IPO. However, this valuation included shares not publicly traded in the total share count calculation, and the valuation didn’t stick. As of Feb. 2019, PTR’s market capitalization stood at $194.38 billion.

Top Companies by Revenue

In terms of the biggest global companies by revenue, Walmart (WMT) comes in as number one — according to the Fortune 500 list. Walmart’s revenues were $500.3 million in 2017. Behind Walmart was State Grid with $348.9 million in revenues, then Sinopec Group with $326.9 million and China National Petroleum at $326 million. Royal Dutch Shell ranks fifth with $311.8 million in annual revenues, and the sixth and seventh spots are covered by car giants. Toyota Motor and Volkswagen generate $265.1 million and $260 million in yearly revenues, respectively.

Based on just U.S.-headquartered companies, Walmart still has the top spot, while ExxonMobil (XOM) comes in second with $244.3 million a year in revenues. Berkshire Hathaway ranks third with $242.1 million and fourth is Apple with $229.2 million. Health care companies take up the fifth through seventh spots: McKesson, UnitedHealth Group and CVS, generated $208.3 million, $201.1 million and $184.7 million, respectively.

Top Private Companies

In terms of private companies, Forbes ranks Minnesota-based Cargill as the largest private U.S. company with $114.7 billion in annual revenues. The company has 155,000 employees. Second is Koch Industries with $110 billion in revenues and 120,000 employees. Ranking third is the grocery chain Albertsons, with $59.9 billion in annual revenue and 275,000 employees.

The fourth and fifth largest private companies are accounting giants Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which generate $43.2 billion and $41.3 billion, respectively. Each employs over 236,000 employees.